James and Tamara Lohan (co-founders of Mr and Mrs Smith) reveal the strategies that have kept their hotel booking platform going in an increasingly competitive market – keep it ‘niche’, harness the power of content and strive for the best customer service both online and offline.
The digital environment is rife with hotel booking websites, with titans like Booking.com and Expedia dominating the market. Mr & Mrs Smith’s key point of difference lies in its curation of hotels.
“Our curation is second to none so when you come to us, we’ve sorted all the wheat from the chaff. You can’t buy your way into our collection,” says James Lohan, co-founder and executive chairman.
Their ambition of creating a guide that could communicate to customers like a close friend has resulted in a quirky collection of over 1,000 luxury and boutique hotels, and a recent expansion into luxury private accommodation.
This idiosyncratic ‘voice’ describing each hotel has made the site one of the first to embrace content as a way to connect directly and personally with their consumers – long before content became the ‘in vogue’ marketing tool it is today.
“The way that we give ‘insider details’, I hope, is an interesting read in its slightly irreverent tone. There aren’t many other sites where you can really trust the recommendations on the best rooms, the best table in a restaurant,” says James.
You could say Mr & Mrs Smith has mastered the art of storytelling as a means of directly engaging with and relating to customers. To create these stories (and to add to their credibility), James says, “We thought it’d be interesting to get people who are frankly more interesting than a hotel inspector… you go away and you just tell us your story for 48 hours.
“We send people on our expense, anonymously to go do it. It’s a very different process, which is why we only have around 1,000 hotels.” Then, they “distil the information into a really fun review.”
Adds Tamara, co-founder and CTO, “From the very beginning, it was all about storytelling. We do all the textbook stuff and make sure that the hotel is fine, and they come back and tell us about the experience.”
Keemala Hotel Phuket – Tree Pool Houses Exterior
Building trust and customer loyalty
This, they say, have led to a strong level of trust in their brand.
“We wouldn’t have a booking space… [and] repeat customers unless people trusted us and liked what we do,” says James. “We want to look after a certain type of traveller who is not looking for cookie-cutter luxury… they don’t judge hotels by stars or diamonds or rosettes [but] by its character, the touches, the team… whatever it might be.”
To further drive customer loyalty, Mr & Mrs Smith guarantees the best rates, has a three-tiered membership scheme and tries to establish a highly personal connection with every customer with its 24-hour hotline, Smith24.
“We’re very much adopting a ‘high tech, high touch’ approach. If it’s a simple booking, do it on our app or our website, but if it’s something more complex, call us. Or, God forbid you have a problem, you need help or want something, we want to be there for you as a human being,” says James.
Long live the human touch
It is good to know that in spite of technology’s growing influence, the ‘death of (true) customer service’ is not necessarily inevitable. The ‘human touch’ is arguably the key thing missing from major OTAs, booking platforms and meta-searches, where the online environment can often feel isolating and sterile.
For less tech-savvy consumers, the dual approach of both online and offline customer service (whether on the phone or via online chat) gives customers security in being able to get any support they need, at any time.
This “high tech, high touch” philosophy that guarantees more personalised service would not go amiss if adopted in the world of traditional hospitality.
When asked what larger chain hotels could do to stand out more in the market, the couple agreed that corporations need to loosen their grip on what they deem a successful model.
James visualises “a massive boardroom table with loads of people in suits around it, all with opinions, and what comes out of it is something grey or beige.” To prove his point further, he notes the distinct lack of individuality in traditional service hospitality, “people don’t react to that…you need to be a hotel that recognises different scenarios rather than training [staff] robotically to do certain things.”
Tamara names The London Edition by Marriott International, as an example of “a chain hotel that has handed over the reigns to a world renowned hotel creator (Ian Schrager) [who has] managed to wrestle the ‘corporateness’ out of it… and control the feel of it, the design, the tone, what the touch points are, what the stories are.”
Keemala Hotel Phuket – Bird’s Nest Pool Bathroom
What about hotels wanting to go direct?
While it is clear that Mr & Mrs Smith considers itself somewhat of an arbiter of quality hotels, how do they maintain a positive relationship with their hotel partners? As digital players continue to colonise hotel distribution pathways, creating a decline in direct bookings, did Mr & Mrs Smith sense any scorn? Not necessarily.
James argues that hotel are fully aware that they exist on the Smith platform as part of a curated selection and that exposure often results in direct bookings.
“We’re trying to be fair that if you are [a hotel] on our site, you’re going to get a lot of direct bookings. When guests are asked ‘where did you hear about us, they always say Mr & Mrs Smith.”
James continues, “I think the reason why hotels are willing to pay us a brand fee or listing fee, is because they know that being a part of our collection means something, and is worth something.”
With these fees being paid, James believes hotels are another type of customer. “We need to be good for both people here… the whole thing is self-fulfilling.” It touches on a sensitive area within the industry as hoteliers have expressed frustration at the growing dominance and consolidation of OTAs and meta-searches, risking the commoditisation of hotel room rates and the death of customer loyalty.
Nevertheless, by achieving a level of mutual respect with their hotel partners, Tamara argues that a level of ‘give and take’ should be recognised when considering the consumer.
“We see ourselves as the matchmaker… The minute the customer walks through the door of the hotel, they are that hotel’s customer. We have to rely on our hotels as partners to look after [them].”
But if a customer wants to go somewhere different on their next holiday, and they book via Mr & Mrs Smith, they are no longer the other hotel’s customer. It serves as the all-important reminder that the customer is king and their experience above all else is sacrosanct to both hoteliers and booking agents.